E-Tools Newsletter | February 2013

Welcome to our February E-Tools Newsletter! This monthly TCC field report also includes helpful outreach resources to encourage and equip you to more faithfully share the Gospel with all the loved ones in your life as we witness for Christ in Canada together.

–ANOTHER GLORY STORY OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

Each week I have the privilege of leading witnessing teams to the front lines on the streets sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, praying for people, and ministering to their needs.

This month our Sovereign Lord orchestrated a powerful evangelism encounter between yours truly and a young man named Scott that I trust will serve as a source of encouragement for you and your church.

It was late Friday night and my ministry partner, Jeff Mardling, and I had already enjoyed several great conversations about Christ and His Gospel. It was then that we came across a young couple walking south in the downtown core of our hometown of London, Ontario.

“Did you get one of these?”, I asked the young man while passing one of our million dollar bill Gospel tracts. “No”, he responded. “Have you ever seen one of these before?” I questioned. “No”, he replied, “What is it?”

(Training Tip! For those of you reading who are new to street witnessing, this ice-breaker is what we call the “Two-Step” tracting technique. Passing the tract, we first ask: “Did you get one of these?”, and then we immediately follow up with: “Have you ever seen one of these before?” It has been our experience that the Lord uses these questions to stir curiosity in the heart and mind of your listener in preparation for the next question…)

The Million Dollar Question

“So, you have never been asked ‘The Million Dollar Question’ before?” I asked. “No”, he said again. “What’s ‘The Million Dollar Question’?” “If you have a few minutes I’d love to ask you”, I said. “Go for it”, he replied.

“When you die, what do you think is on the other side?”

Scott paused. “That’s a great question. I believe if you make peace with yourself, then you’ll be fine. I believe you’ll go to heaven.”

“That’s a different answer!”, I replied. “But on what basis should God allow you into heaven if you’ve sinned against Him?” That question lead to a wonderful 30-minute discussion about the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What happened next was most awesome.

Here Comes the Judge

As the conversation was wrapping up, I asked Scott if I could share one last illustration with him to help him try and better visualize how God satisfied His justice and demonstrated His love through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. He said, “Sure!”

“Imagine you are standing before God, the just Judge of all, evidently guilty of all crimes. He is just about to sentence you (as He should) to everlasting punishment in Hell, when all of a sudden He mercifully steps down from His bench and lays down His life for yours. Do you understand that only the Judge Himself has both the power and authority necessary to give His life as payment to dismiss your case justly? That’s a small picture of what Jesus Christ did on the Cross to save sinners.”

After hearing this illustration, Scott’s mouth hung open. “You’re not going to believe what happened to me just two weeks ago.” And with that he began to tell his story…

A couple weeks previous to our conversation Scott was standing in a real courtroom before a real judge, guilty of very real and serious crimes. Oddly, his attorney did not show up that day and Scott was asked by the judge to join him in his chambers. What the judge said next was just plain shocking – especially in light of the conversation Scott and I just shared. He told Scott that he was going to extend him mercy by dismissing his case and giving him a second chance. Though this was obviously a VERY unorthodox ruling, it was the decision the judge felt that he should make.

As you can imagine, Scott was very humbled to hear my illustration about God’s courtroom in light of his own recent courtroom experience.

Sovereign Over Salvation

“Scott, I don’t want to sound manipulative or spooky here”, I began. “But don’t you think it’s safe to say that the proximity of what I just said in light of your recent experience confirms that God is trying to get your attention about the weightier matters of life, death, and eternity?” Scott hung his head and agreed.

I gave him an invite card to our church and his girlfriend asked for one as well. I am trusting the Lord that He will grant both Scott and his girlfriend repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will worship Jesus Christ with us someday soon.

In closing, I trust you know that God is sovereign over everything! He is sovereign over our experiences. He is sovereign over evangelism. He is sovereign over salvation. And He is sovereign over exactly how they all fit together! He simply calls us to be faithful to sow and water the seed of His Word, all the while trusting Him to bring the increase.

To God be all the glory.

~ Cory

Cory McKenna is founder of The Cross Current, host of TCC Radio, and Pastor of Local Missions at Harvest Bible Chapel London. He has street witnessed and open air preached in many cities across North America. He is an experienced church and conference speaker who specializes in equipping evangelists and their churches to more faithfully preach the Gospel. Cory and his wife Dawn live in London, Ontario with their two sons, Joshua and Caleb.

If you are new to us, TCC Radio is the outreach broadcast and podcast of The Cross Current local missions ministry.

This “reality radio” program equips the Church to engage the culture by airing Gospel conversations recorded between average Canadians and our outreach radio reps on the street.Having recently enjoyed expansion into another new radio market, we want to help you put faces and personalities to voices by introducing you to one of the newest men behind the mics, who faithfully represent the Lord and TCC Radio in the local mission field.

Chris is currently employed as a truck driver at a local feed company and also does cash crop farming on the side.

Chris started street witnessing and open air preaching at Easter in April of 2012 before attending The Cross Current Church Champions Training Retreat in London, Ontario last year.

Left: Chris sits among the other equipping evangelists at our Church Champions Training Retreat

Each week Chris leads a street outreach team in the Waterloo region sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ by passing tracts, witnessing one-to-one, and open air preaching.

Right: Chris “breaks the sound barrier” by preaching the Gospel open air for the very first time

Chris’ call and passion is to be obedient and faithful to fulfill the Great Commission by preaching the Gospel and equipping others in his local church community to do the same, resulting in the Good News reaching the ends of the earth. He has a desire to learn and grow, and become a more effective evangelist for God’s glory.

Chris and his wife, Rosalind, live in Brunner, Ontario with their two sons, Kaiden and Kylar.

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Click HERE or the picture at left to see how God worked a beautiful story of reconciliation in the lives and marriage of Chris & Rosalind Wagler

What could chocolate bunnies and painted eggs possibly have to do with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? What’s so “good” about Good Friday?

In this series, our outreach radio team is keeping the Cross current by taking the time to go, tell, and broadcast real-time street conversations with everyday people in the hope that all who hear the Good News will come to believe.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. (Philippians 1:3-5)

We thank God for the blossoming Gospel partnership that He has allowed us to enjoy with Sye Ten Bruggencate of Absolute Apologetics. We humbly ask that you read his update below and pray for him as he has requested.

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It’s been almost 2 years since I met Cory. For those of you who have not heard the story, I met Cory about 4,000 kilometers away only to find out that we lived only 10 kilometers apart. Our meeting has been truly God-ordained as we have been able to share our love for apologetics and, by the grace of God, make some great strides in bringing presuppositional apologetics to the streets.

For the last few months, Cory and I, along with Edin Azabagic of The Cross Current, have been meeting nearly every week to create a number of “worldview apologetic” tracts. We spend at least a day hammering out refutations of each worldview, then many hours on Skype polishing them off. Thankfully, the project is nearly finished and the day that we can release them to you all is in sight.

Right: Sye shares the Gospel one-to-one with a student on the streets of Philadelphia

I have to take this opportunity to thank those of you who supported me for my “Ivy League Tour” last fall, where I joined a group of evangelists to herald the Gospel at a number of Universities on the east coast of the United States. I have not seen many of you since then, and wish to express my sincere thanks for your generosity, your thoughtfulness, and your prayers.

A few days ago I returned from the “Jeremiah Cry Ministries’ East Coast Tour” where we shared the Good News of Jesus Christ at universities in Philadelphia. While this is not normally nerve wracking for me, the knowledge that American Vision was sending up a film crew to film the event for a video project we are working on, added some stress. By God’s grace, this stress melted away when surrounded by dear brothers in Christ, and the hostile, and not-so-hostile, lost.

Left: Sye and the camera crew video recording witnessing encounters on the university campus in Philly

I don’t know whether to be thankful, or sad at having some of the typically dreadful responses from professed unbelievers captured on video. I asked one particularly abrasive heckler whether he protested Santa Claus at the mall at Christmas for duping the children. He responded: “No I don’t.” When I asked him “Why not?”, he said: “Because I know that Santa Claus is not real”. Indeed, everyone knows that God exists (Romans 1: 18-22), and it is a joy to be able to teach other Christians how to share this fact, and to confront those who would deny it. Our worldview tracts should help greatly in this regard.

As you are reading this, I am en route to Georgia to do some more work on the video project and have a number of teaching dates lined up the rest of the year. Your prayers for wisdom, health, traveling mercies, and a discerning use of time are greatly appreciated.

Blessings,

Sye Ten Bruggencate

Sye Ten Bruggencatewas raised in a Christian home in Toronto, Ontario with a passion for defending his faith. In 2006, Sye launched the website proofthatgodexists.org and in 2008 began pursuing apologetics full time. Since then, Sye has been teaching Christians how to present Jehovah God to a lost world, and proving his faith in spirited debates as he shares the powerful Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let’s continue partnering together to keep our prayer pulse for TCC and the Church in Canada strong!

There are three very specific petitions that we humbly request that you, your family, and your church continue lifting up to the Lord on our behalf related to where we believe He is leading us in 2013:

> Church Champions Training Retreats

As equipping evangelists within local churches is the heartbeat of The Cross Current, please pray that the Lord will help us with all logistics related to this year’s Church Champions Training Retreat(s), and for the overall fruitfulness of each training time together.

> Rep & Radio expansion

As outreach radio expansion will be one of our major objectives for 2013, please pray that the Lord helps us equip and release more TCC radio representatives from solid partner churches, and that many radio executives and stations will begin broadcasting our program.

> “Questions & The Answer” Apologetic Tracts

Please pray that the Lord helps us put the appropriate finishing touches on these powerful apologetic tracts that we have been diligently putting together with Sye Ten Bruggencate of Absolute Apologetics.

> Financial Support

Canada needs Christ! Please pray that God will speak to the hearts of more and more supporters who will give generously and cheerfully to our work of equipping by example pastors, Christians, and their churches to share the Gospel in Canada.